


Red Light, Green Light

by Lilbug121



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Phase 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-20
Updated: 2013-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-05 07:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilbug121/pseuds/Lilbug121
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the light on the nape of her neck glows red, she is a sadistic killing machine and seeing it makes you sick. When the light glows green she acts sweet and friendly and too much like the real thing, and it also makes you sick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Light, Green Light

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a head cannon of mine: Cyborg Noodle has 2 modes; one is a “bodyguard mode”, where she is the fiercely loyal ruthless killer we saw so much of. The other is a “relaxed mode”, where she acts a lot more like the real Noodle. She would make music, explore the island, watch movies, and was pretty much normal. As things on the island got more dangerous, Murdoc was forced to keep her in bodyguard mode for much longer stretches of time than he anticipated when he built her, and eventually she got stuck in it.

The first time the cyborg comes down to your room you freeze in fright worse than you already were. When he want you to sing something Murdoc gets you himself, so the only reason she would come down is to do terrible things that he couldn't be bothered with and-

She flops onto your bed in a very relaxed, very Noodle-ey way, and asks you if you want to watch a movie. 

You think for a moment that maybe this was the real Noodle somehow, or else you finally went insane, but you can see the bullet wound and charging ports clear as day. 

Confused, you say sure and, save for the tinge of confusion and anxiety, it was actually kind of fun, the most fun you've had since you got here. It makes you miss Noodle though, almost too much, but it's the most friendly companion you could hope to find at the moment and you'll take it.

The next time you see her, she and Murdoc are laughing maniacally and shooting down birds for fun. It frustrates you, how similar she is to Noodle one moment and how different the next, and if it would just stay consistent then maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but as of now it just makes your head hurt more. 

Eventually you come to notice a small LED light on the back of her neck. Sometimes it glows red and sometimes green, and you slowly come to associate the colors with her behavior. Green meant she acted nice and watched movies with you and talked about the fish and birds and sea shells she finds exploring the island and hugs you when you start to cry for no reason (but there is a reason, because you almost feel like she really is Noodle and then you remember she isn't and it makes you sad about her all over again). You like it when the light glows green.

You don't like the red light. When the light glows red her eyes narrow and her face goes cold and she's all guns and death and killing and protection, and under it all you still see Noodle, the real Noodle that you love like a sister, and you remember her explaining Demon Days to you and you know that she would be sad to see all of this, and it feels perverse seeing her 15 year old body doing all of this. And it still makes you miss her. 

The light seems to glow red more and more as the situation gets more dangerous, and eventually you stop seeing the green light all together. 

You notice Murdoc fiddling frantically with a remote and almost think he looks scared, but you aren't sure. It's consistent now how she acts, but now she scares you even more. It seems worse than it used to be, she seems less cold and more sadistic. 

You feel like you're going to be sick, sick from the fear and anxiety and the booze you drink at night when your pills run out your brain feels like it's trying to escape out your eyes and you just want to sleep, you don't even wish to go home anymore you would be happy if you could just sleep and you used to find a small small measure of comfort in the cyborg when the light glowed green but it doesn't glow green anymore and eventually you think she might be broken. You tell Murdoc this and he gets mad at you for doubting his craftsmanship, but you still privately think you're right. 

 

As scared as she made you, you still feel a little sad when the cyborg is destroyed. But mostly you're just relieved that Noodle, the real Noodle, is...not fine exactly, but she's better than dead and that's enough. 

You don't leave her side for about a week when you get back to England, and try as you might it wasn't very subtle. She notices you sleeping outside her door the second night you do it because you didn't wake up in time to move, and the next night you share a bed. It reminds you both of when she was small and had nightmares, but now it is for your sake rather than hers. You make yourself stop after a few days, but you can't help checking on her every morning. 

And if some nights still find you outside her door wrapped in a thin blanket, and in her bed if she goes to get a glass if water and sees you there (but you don't like to ask that of her, you're in your 30's for god's sake and you feel like you're 8 again), well, no one would have called you well-adjusted before all of this anyways.


End file.
